So what's it like? In the hand and it seems well built, solid, and yes that screen really is that nice.

As for performance? It’s only when you try it out, as we did in the minutes that followed the keynote, that you get to see how fast it is. The iPad’s speedy A4 processor does a great job, launching programs in a blink, whizzing you about impressively quickly. Will it work this fast when it’s multi-tasking? We’ll let you know, but initial impressions were very favourable.

It’s the first handset to beat the original iPhone’s styling, and is so beautifully engineered that it’s bound to become an instant design icon.

Gushy we know, so we'll hold out giving you our final verdict until we get one to test later in the month.